Monthly Archives: September 2017

The State Government has announced that a budget has been approved for the vitalization of Chatswood Public School (CPS). However, details are short in coming. An information booth at the school on Friday 22nd September was farcical. The project officers standard answer to most questions was “We cannot talk about that’. It was rumoured that there was to be a ‘special visitor’ to the booth with the assumption that a mini-launch of the project would occur. This did not happen.

A Project Reference Group has been formed and met on two occasions. At the first meeting there were representatives from both CPS and Chatswood High Schoool CHS)/ Evidently the Department has developed two concept plans.Both plans involved the retention and likely expansion of the CPS ‘Bush Campus’ at CHS.

The community’s preferred approach is to expand CPS at its current location, if necessary with expansion by the acquisition of adjoining land. However, the Minister for Education has responded “I am advised that the Department is not currently considering the acquisition of land … because that would have an impact on the funding available for the upgrade of school facilities”at the last meeting of the Chatswood West Ward Progress Association it was agreed that we should continue to advocate for the acquisition of land adjacent to CPS t. A better solve longer term educational requirements in the area. It was also agreed that the wider community, including Chatswood High School should be consulted over the proposed changes.

It appears the Department may be embarking on a stop-gap measure of increasing the number of CPS demountables at CHS site and the refurbishment of some classrooms on the CPS site. Whilst this might address next year’s enrollment crisis it does not necessarily provide a long term solution.

It is unclear if Willoughby Council will be consulted about the proposal and new legislation may have passed control to the State Government.

Some of what appears is being proposed is a second oval at CHS. Accommodation of 1,000 primary students and a new four storey high school building. CPS currently has 1,250 students and anticipate 1,300+ in 2018. There are 400 CPS students on the CHS site. This may increase to 600.

At the information booth, parents were arguing the need to provide not just learning spaces and play space but also ancillary facilities such a large assembly hall and enrichment spaces for things like music and art etc.

Whilst the Department has been spruiking that new facilities will be ready for the first day of school in 2020, their project officers mentioned that it was likely a 3-4 year project.

You can send any submissions to David Tonge at the Department of Education: david.tonge3@det.nsw.edu.au

Sydney Metro City & Southwest extends the new metro network from the end of Sydney Metro Northwest at Chatswood, under Sydney Harbour, through the CBD, and west to Bankstown.

John Holland CPB Contractors Ghella Joint Venture (JHCPBG) has been contracted by Transport for NSW (TfNSW) to complete the major Tunnel and Station Excavation (TSE) Works for Sydney Metro City and Southwest, which involves designing and constructing the twin 15.5 kilometre tunnels between Chatswood and Sydenham.

To facilitate the delivery of these works, a tunnel dive site will be established at Chatswood. JHCPBG will start works in October to set-up the site in preparation for tunnelling to commence in 2018.

Come and meet the JHCPBG team for a coffee or tea and learn about the works we will doing at the Chatswood dive site. Our team will be happy to answer your questions.

Perhaps the most noteworthy outcome was Craig Campbell, a first time candidate, polled so strongly. Craig was the President of the Mowbrary School P&C; on the Mowbray School Council and the Treasurer of the Chatswood West Ward Progress Association.

Another interesting outcome was that 77% of West Ward voted for Independent candidates. Willoughby Council has long been the champion of Independents with 12 out of 13 of the newly elected Councilors being Independents. This matches the often expressed view of residents in favour of independents.

We promised to let you know when there was something new to report on the Beaconsfield lights saga—happily, there is some movement since the last update.

We left off previously that Willoughby and Lane Cove traffic engineers had come up with 3 options for allowing a right hand turn from Beaconsfield southbound into Mowbray Rd westbound. These were:

Option 1: This option involves the construction of islands in Mowbray Rd to prevent straight through movements from Beaconsfield Rd into Ralston St

Option 2: This option is a variation of Option 1 with the additional modification to the configuration of the intersection on the south-eastern corner to improve left turn movements from Mowbray Rd west into Ralston St.

Option 3: This option relies on the use of signs only (no physical islands) to prohibit entry into Ralston St from Beaconsfield Rd. This is the least expensive option and has been successfully implemented at many similar intersections. (An example being the treatment at the Gore Hill Freeway exit at the Pacific Highway where entry into Howarth Rd is prohibited)

The engineers preferred option 3, which they submitted to the RMS. The RMS has been the sticking point so far, so it’s good news that RMS has come back and agreed:

Willoughby Council has now received advice from RMS indicating that Option 3 is their preferred one as well (signage only stopping through traffic movements, no physical barriers in place).

Council forwarded a project brief to a traffic planning consultancy last Friday to provide traffic data collection, traffic modelling, and analysis services of the existing situation and option 3. We are not sure what they will learn that they haven’t already learned from the previous several studies, but it’s progress, so we are not going to try to stop them. Anyway, the consultants notified Council yesterday that they will submit a fee proposal to proceed.

We are not entirely clear on the exact order of the next steps, but assuming the traffic study concurs with the engineers’ views, this should then head to the respective traffic committees of Lane Cove and Willoughby (the RMS-led ones) for approval. Willoughby has already approved doing this, so it should be a minimal issue; we are not sure about Lane Cove but will follow up. In any case, it’s slow progress but heading in the right direction nonetheless.